Q.As per recent development, what is the nature of light? Wave optics and particle nature of light are used to explain which phenomena of light, respectively?
As per recent development, light is understood to have a DUAL nature: it consists of discrete, energy-carrying particles called photons, whose collective propagation is nevertheless governed by the mathematics of electromagnetic wave theory. Neither picture alone is complete: pure-wave theory alone fails to explain the photoelectric effect, spectral-line emission, and the Compton effect, all of which require light's particle (photon) character; pure-particle (corpuscular) theory alone fails to explain interference, diffraction and polarization, which require light's wave character. WAVE OPTICS (physical optics) is the branch used to explain interference, diffraction, polarization and the Doppler effect of light -- all genuinely wave phenomena. The PARTICLE nature of light is instead used to explain the photoelectric effect, emission of spectral lines, and the Compton effect -- phenomena involving light's direct, quantised interaction with matter, which classical wave theory cannot account for at all. [!ANSWER] Dual nature: photons obeying EM-wave rules; wave optics -> interference/diffraction/polarization/Doppler effect; particle nature -> photoelectric effect/spectral emission/Compton effect.
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